ATLANTA — In a chaotic, confusing, confounding National Fools Ball mess Monday night, the replacement officials lost control; the league lost credibility, and the Broncos lost their way.

There was disorder in the dome.

The Broncos and the Zebras have each other to blame, although there's enough for them to share.

The Falcons mostly would stay out of the fray, and barely survived a furious comeback attempt by the Broncos, 27-21.

A nation tuned in for a marquee football game and, instead, got WWE and Amateur Night.

The NFL should be ashamed, embarrassed and distressed.

But coach John Fox, who argued with the referee the entire evening, would not be drawn into criticism of the officials. I asked him about the chaos. “Controlled chaos,'he said, but wouldn't use the officiating as an excuse. “It was a sidenote,” he said.

“Do you really believe that?” I asked.

“I said it,” he said, and ended the discussion.

The Broncos ended up winning the offensive statistical battle, outpassing and outrushing the Falcons. However, for only the second time in his long career, Peyton Manning threw three interceptions in his first three possessions.

Then, a short time later, Knowshon Moreno fumbled.

But, strangely enough, the Broncos trailed only 20-7 at halftime after Manning finally connected with Demaryius Thomas for a touchdown.

Which came, of course, because of an overturned decision by the officials, who made more mistakes than the Broncos did — if that could be possible.

And in Hotlanta, Fox and his assistants lost their cool time after time with referee Ken Roan and his associates. If this had been a major-league game, Fox would have been ejected. If this had been baseball, the Broncos would have protested the game. If the Broncos could have, they would have walked off the field and refused to play any more. If the officials could have, they would have called a forfeit in favor of the Falcons.

This looked more like something out of the Arena League 2 or the Griswolds family Christmas.

If this is right, the NFL is all wrong.

If the Broncos were all right after their first game, they were all wrong on offense in the second game.

Monday Night Football almost immediately appeared headed toward Tuesday Morning Football. At 11:05 p.m. (Atlanta time), another seven minutes and eight seconds remained on the clock — in the third quarter.

The Falcons had just taken a 27-6 lead.

This was supposed to be a game between two high-powered offenses, but the two defenses really were more important and played better.

The Broncos occasionally broke down defensively, but the Falcons almost broke the game open early with the Peyton picks. It could have been 21-0 instead of 13-0, though.

And if the Falcons hadn't covered a late third down, the Broncos might have had "an opportunity to win," Fox said.

The Broncos actually kept themselves in the game by virtue of their defense.

This is why Fox brought in Jack Del Rio.

Manning repeatedly has said that the Broncos need to develop an identity on offense.

But, the Broncos need to create its signature on defense, too. There are several quality individual players, but the entire unit has to become one, as the Orange Crush did, as those Broncos defense of the Super Bowl champions did.

Nobody outside Denver has been paying attention to the Broncos' defense in the past decade or so. As a former assistant told me a couple of years ago, Mike Shanahan turned his back on the defense until it was too late for him. Josh McDaniels was all offense, all the time, until he attempted to take over the defense, too, and couldn't do that, either.

Fox is supposed to be about “D.”

The defense improved some last year, but unless it improves dramatically this year, Manning won't be enough, as was proven Monday night

The Broncos defense, considering everything, was rather respectable in defeat. They had permitted the Falcons to covert only 4-of-12 third downs before the final drive. And they seemed to be holding Atlanta in check until the biggest third-down conversion of the game kept the Broncos off the field.

Fox said that Manning is still getting adjusted to his new teammates, and “it won' happen overnight.”

In the end, the coach refused to point the finger at Manning or the officiating. “You're not going to win when you're minus-4 on the turnovers. ... We came up a little short.”

Especially when the Broncos were, as was once said by a former referee from Denver, Ben Dreith, the officials were giving them the business.

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